New School, New Adventures

Here is a picture of my desk at Learning Services, as the Gifted Mentor Teacher, a position I held from October 2014 to June 2015.  Although an extremely challenging job, it was rewarding on so many levels, but ultimately, it made me realize how much I needed to change my professional focus in education.  To briefly state, I needed to leave gifted education - more on that later in other posts.  

Below is my new classroom:

I had a choice of two rooms, and although the other room had wonderful white boards, I chose this room because of the natural light, the trees outside the window, and the door that opens onto a courtyard with benches and grass. Furthermore, the other classroom was painted a moss green colour and it just didn't work with me - I needed a white background!  

Although I would have loved to be at a new school set up for 21st Century learning,  I find the new classrooms that are being designed are extremely small and really not as functional as the ones from early eras.  New classrooms are built around common learning areas,  but often the actual room, where instruction takes place, are too small.  

I have to admit that I love classrooms from the 1960's, as they are quite large, have wonderful storage areas (I have my own storage closet), a great use of windows, and reflect the mid century modern design that I love so much.  I was so excited that my room reflected this design aesthetic.

I am going to leave the cloak room very clean and not fill it with "teacher junk".    Teacher junk is a term I give to the old resources, paper, boxes, and general stuff teachers haul around with them thinking "I might use this in the future".

Coming back to the classroom, I am acutely aware of the amount of paper and resources that I hauled with me from class to class.  I am very conscious of using less paper and having only essential resources that I currently use.   

My desk will go in this corner.  Or do I call it "Teacher Station"?  

Classroom library will go here: 

 

In the next post, I will show the progression of putting the classroom together.  Are classrooms still called that...or should I reference it as the "Learning Studio"?  So much has changed since I began teaching in 1991 - 24 years ago! I can't believe I've been in the field that long, and I am returning to a classroom with much delight.